Springing for Student Textbooks? Exploring New Directions for Library Collections

Given the increasing costs of student textbooks, it is only natural that students would engage in cost-avoidance behaviors. Likewise, some professors have modified their curricular choices to avoid passing along the cost of required texts for their students. At the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, the library has licensed several databases that include access to a number of assigned student textbooks. While the provision of these textbooks was not the intent in the licensing of these resources, it is an added benefit of the subscription and their availability is appreciated by the students who may avoid individual purchases. Because there has been no effort on the part of the library to license resources for the purpose of providing access to textbooks, students in certain programs have access to many assigned texts while students in other programs have access to no textbooks at all.

Using an adapted version of a previously created survey, faculty were asked questions about currently licensed platforms, the selection of course textbooks, and the importance of textbook availability. The purpose of the survey was to gauge faculty members’ level of knowledge and interest in expanding the course textbook offerings available through the library’s electronic collections. Proposed future actions include expanding textbooks offerings, exploring potential funding streams to support the expansion, and involving librarians in curricular development and textbook selection.